OKAY BOOMER: A Love Letter to the Boomers
It’s August 2016; Trump is campaigning for President, Batman v Superman is stinking up cinemas and Pokemon Go has people lurking around local parks staring through their phones at pretend animals like straight-up weirdos. I’m working in a soul-crushing job trying to figure out what to do with my life when I find myself all-in on the Boomers campaign at Rio 2016, only to watch them lose to Spain in the final seconds and finish a disappointing 4th place. The Bronze Medal slipped right through our hands, thanks in part to a string of objectively mediocre calls from the referees, and I was gutted. So gutted, in fact, that coworkers asked on more than one occasion the next day if I was okay as I moped around that giant green box of retail nightmares looking visibly deflated. Was a family member sick? Marriage problems at home? Nope — the Boomers lost last night. “We should’ve had a medal” I’d say with a sigh as I stared at the floor, the final sequence of the game playing over and over on repeat in my head.
Fast forward to present day and it’s no surprise that my emotional investment in our Olympic campaign is at an all time high. Probably not unlike the half a dozen basketball enthusiasts who read this (if I’m lucky….and not counting my mum), I’m on my feet, I’m yelling at the TV, and I’m Tweeting my heart out to share in the excitement on socials with the rest of the nation. That’s what got me thinking, what exactly is it that’s so intoxicating about watching our national team on the biggest stage? So I went ahead and put together some thoughts…
We are a proud, overachieving sporting nation
Australia has always been the loudmouthed younger brother of the world sporting stage — smaller and not always quite as talented, but often right there in contention out of sheer grit and determination. We rank 11th at Tokyo 2020 for Medals Per Capita (it’s worth noting that a few of the Top 10 are outliers due to minuscule populations), absolutely dwarfing the 3 Olympic powerhouses that sit atop the traditional medal tally in China (68), Japan(45) and the US (49). We punch above our weight, and we’re proud of it.
Our Basketball program is no exception. Of the 450 players on NBA Rosters, nine are Australian (give or take, depending on short-term contracts etc). Not a single player on the Boomers roster has been named an NBA All Star, nor have they realistically been anywhere near consideration. And yet we have beaten the US and their 31 Combined NBA All-Star appearances twice in recent exhibition matches, and remain the favourites to challenge them at Tokyo 2020. If that doesn’t make you proud, I don’t know what does!
The stakes are so damn high
In almost every sport, even after the most bitter of defeats, the biggest consolation is usually some form of “we’ll get ’em next year.” Not here — four years between bites at the apple means there is so much riding on every campaign. Stop for a second and think how quickly athletes can age-out at the top end of their respective sport. A two or three year window is often all it takes for a player to go from elite to average, or from average to out of the sport entirely. The four year gap can see a player like Spain’s Marc Gasol still relatively in his prime and carrying his national team in 2016 (2016/17 NBA All Star on 19.5/6/4.5), only to be playing spot minutes off the bench by 2021 and announcing his retirement from the national team this week after a tournament exit at the hands of the US. Long time core Boomers like Baynes, Ingles, Mills and Goulding will all be in their late 30’s by Paris 2024 and, whilst I’m sure they will be on the roster, a question mark likely hangs over the significance of their role with so much young talent coming through in the likes of Green, Giddy, Thybulle and Landale. Every Olympic campaign is now-or-never for a small selection of guys who’ve given their heart and soul to the national team for years.
The chance for our NBA guys to shine
“Olympic Patty” is a widely known moniker at this point when talking about the sharp shooting, flag bearing Patty Mills. It’s almost comical, the things he does with a basketball when he puts on the green and gold. In tournament play as a Boomer, Mills averages 19 PTS per game shooting 36% from 3PT on nearly 7 attempts per game (many of which are a high degree of difficulty — these aren’t spot up 3’s we’re talking about). At Tokyo 2020, Mills ranks 4th in Scoring at 21.7 PPG shooting 37.5% from 3 and averaging a huge 34.4 Minutes in the 40 minute international format. Beyond the traditional statistics is the fact that Mills usage rate is clearly immense. He is asked to carry the bulk of the scoring and playmaking, executing a mix of high level pick and roll offense with spectacular isolation shot making whilst getting off nearly 19 shots per game.
But what makes all of this so puzzling to the casual basketball fan is just how distinctly it contrasts with the role he has carved out in the NBA. Best known for his 10 seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, Patty averaged 9.4 PPG on 20 minutes of playing time being asked to capitalise on just 7 shots per game. After signing a 2 year contract yesterday to head to Brooklyn, getting those touches will only prove even more difficult amidst the offensive juggernaut of KD, Harden and Kyrie. National team tournaments provide an opportunity for a plethora of international players to show the world just how talented they are and highlight how much they sacrifice for their respective NBA teams in the interest of winning. No one personifies this more than Patty who learnt to diligently utilise his skill set within the greater good of the team concept — something all players outside the elite of the elite need to accept in order to make a career in the league. But in the green and gold, the shackles are off and Patty, along with the rest of our NBA talent, get to show the world exactly how great they are. And I’m here for every last bit of it!
The Boomers take on Team USA in a Semi Final for a chance to compete for Gold on Thursday August 5th at 2:15pm AEST.
